Tuesday, April 29, 2008

I understand everybody being upset about me chopping with cmitch. My reasons for chopping last night have nothing to do with poker. I don't need to explain....but FAMILY>POKER. Of course I want to beat cmitch......of course I want to win 2 M.A.T.H.s in a month....of course I want to make a last ditch effort at the April seat. I happened to have more important things to worry about at the time.......and for the record...I've never chopped a tourney before and probably won't again.

Monday, April 28, 2008

I should have taken the day off from Poker tournaments yesterday....including the 'Big Game'. I had a few beers and started to get antsy around the poker machine. I bought directly in to the 'Big Game' and promptly played like shit. My leaks are as follows....I play bad hands when card dead in bad position....and I raise semi-decent hands that I have no business raising. Seems simple to stop both leaks...but they are like Bud Lights in my refrigerator. That is to say....constantly there and constantly replenished. I'm not even making sense today....I will however give a shot to M.A.T.H. tonight. After all that 'is' how I earned my TOC seat earlier this month. Time to smarten up and play better....I should have had that mindset last night.I was playing a big stack in the 25K guar. on PokerStars on Friday night but donked out around 90th place. There was one guy that re-raised All in every time I raised his Blind. What range do you start to put a guy like that on after he does it for a 3rd time in an hour? My goal before my daughter is born at the end of May is to win a 15.00+ buy-in tournament. I need some help with this type of play after the money bubble is burst.I can't believe my daughter is going to turn 3 next week....time flies...seems like yesterday...She was born on 05-05-05....pocket 5's should be my favorite hand. I have won a small tourney with the 'presto'. A set of fives is my favorite hand when I get a chance to flop it. Random thoughts on a Monday....makes sense to nobody but me.....

Coming soon to a media player on your PC :M.A.T.H table from HELL :I wasn't there for long.....I got shifted to another table....that was not a good table to be at!

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Monday, April 14, 2008

It would be nice to go to Foxwoods every Sunday....but that will be my last time for while. With the wife being hugely pregnant I don't want to be too far away (2.5 hour drive) just in case. I picked up Biggestron AKA Bdidde on the way to Foxwoods and we were on our way at about 7:30AM. Getting knocked out of the 80+20 NL tourney 25th or so out of 175 certainly sucked! 20 people get paid. I probably shouldn't have made it that far anyway but at least I can claim the last longer bet...a hefty 25.00 mind you. A couple of the guys have final tabled this push fest and made hefty sums of money. I was in survival mode for the last 2 hours. I had to push under the gun with A-2o to avoid blinding out....I turned trip two's and tripled up. I later pushed with 6's in late position after surviving another rotation. The blinds were 800-1600 and I was called and doubled up again. I finally got a pocket pair better than 9's late in the game and pushed from the button. It looked like a steal and the BB called and doubled me up to about 17.5K. Not much to report after that...the blinds got up to 1500-3000 with 300 ante. I couldn't defend my blinds with two pushes in front of me with a hand like 9-4o. After 2 more orbits I pushed one last time with Q-10o and the old man in the BB called much to my surprise. Usually the old guy just grimaces and reluctantly folds his hand while grumbling about young whippersnappers. He called J-Ko and neither improves but K-high wins.

After the tourney and a cool off session I went to the cafe to get some food. I was getting a headache and usually when I get hungry at the casino I get a headache. I forgot my Sudafed at home...I usually pop it like skittles in the casino. I got a New England Turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes. Headache? Gone. I like the poker room but I kind of miss the old poker room. It was right next to the race book and the huge race book bar. You could actually get a few drinks at the bar and wait to be seated. It was also much brighter upstairs with all the windows...I didn't realize it but it was kind of dark in the WPT room.

CK and F-Train (plays 10-20 limit games....way out of my league) showed up to play some cash games...I guess they stayed there the night before. I met them....again (I met them both at the Winter Classic but I was so sauced I didn't think either remembered....I kind of did). Rumours of Donkette bringing Yankees-RedSox tickets for everybody circulated around the bloggers in the poker room. Bdidde ended up not playing the tourney but was able to play cash all day long. I think Donkette was sick or something so CK and F-Train headed back to NY later on. I got to sit at a 1-2 NL table later on but the table behind me had CK, Rakefeeder, WWonka69, and some others. I didn't want to go sit down with them at first but the table I was at was just...boring. I got a seat change and the table was a lot of fun. Straddle-bets were thrown out and the table stated to loosen up. I got involved in a couple of pots but not too many...mostly folds to be bets from the Asian lady who sat to the right of the dealer (no not CK). I told Bdidde we would leave at 6:00. That's when this crazy hand came up :I was in the BB with 9d-2d. There were at least 3 calls including the guy to the right of Rake, Rake, and CK. The flop came down with 9x-6x-2x. BB special for me. (I can never remember the details of my big hands...so if there are details that are wrong I apologize. I usually remember the big pots I lost and the exact play or lack thereof). I think CK threw out a 20 dollar bet and was called by me, Guy next to Rake, and Rake raised maybe to 40.00. Anyway, CK went all in for the rest of her chips...maybe another 65.00 or so. I didn't want anymore play from the other guys after that...I went all-in over the top with probably 200.00 or so. The guy next to Rake was really struggling (I thought....oh shit...maybe he has 6's? nah...I think he had an over pair...he eventually folded). Rake had 9-Q come to find out...he struggled with it a bit but made the right lay down. CK turns over 9x-Ax (all four 9's were out at this time) and I show the 9-2d. I think a 5x landed on the turn and then another two landed on the river to give my 2's full of 9's. Overall I could have just called the all in and maybe one of the other guys would have gone all in....but I felt I had to protect the two pair. Did I play this wrong? I don't know...I don't play a lot of cash but I've played quite a few sessions of 1-2 NL at Foxwoods. Anyway we left at 6:30 to make the trek home. That was a hell of a way to end the day after the tourney bubbleage. It was good to see a few bloggers mix it up and make an otherwise average day at the card room exciting again.I don't see me being able to go to the WPBT Summer Classic or the WSOP this summer. I could probably go to the WSOP if won a seat but then again I'd probably have to sell it....dang! Anyway, it was good to see everybody again and I hope to sling the cards again soon.

Edit : (Rakefeeder recall) "It was $10 to me which I bumped to $30 to see where I was at. CK went all in for $36 more or something, but then you flat called and the pot buyer guy flat called. My Q9 surely had to be beat but I thought I might be live and getting 8-1 on my money so I called. I was planning on calling CK's $36 anyway".

Friday, April 11, 2008

Don't forget to play the Donkament tonight....fun times with some uberDonks. The rebuy is only a dollar so you don't have to worry about re-buying more than 50 times...which has been done before! I'm also headed down to the Woods of Fox on Sunday for an AM NL tourney (100.00) with a bunch of Mass. bloggers/degenerates/gamblers/HPTers (WWonka69, ittolm, bdidde, and rakefeeder to name a few) generally my kind of crowd. Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Last weeks chat thing had me thinking. I can understand why some people would take time off from the BBT3 or why people are totally put off by abusive chat. I can understand why people get pissed and spew venom after losing a hand that they should have won. We've all done it. I stopped the chat war thing in the BBT after the BBT1 and realized that people misunderstand a lot of what is said in the chat. For instance : 'Nice hand'....can be a sarcastic comment about the way a player hit his gutshot straight on the river....or it can mean 'Nice hand'. I understand both sides of the story and have been on both sides. I usually don't get into chat wars anymore...but after a few beers and a bad mood...I can be goaded into anything. Lately I type in chat and it's usually complementary....but people still misunderstand it. If I was totally put off by the chat and banter in the BBT3 I would just shut the chat box off and play on. I actually shut the chat box completely after making the final table of the MATH. In past final tables I would be so distracted by the volume of chat....not what was being said...but the constant dings and comments.....good or bad. It really distracted me to the point of not knowing what to do next. I shut it down on Monday night and I could just concentrate on playing the hand and the player. It worked. So for me....it's not abusive chat that puts me on tilt...it's trying to play while reading the chat. I hope that my chat doesn't get misunderstood by anyone.....it's just idle chat. I came home after the Sox home opener and was properly shattered. I played the Bodonkey (I'm never going to play Q's again in the Bodonk) and lost a decent stack against pocket 5's. I played the skills H.O.R.S.E game and made a nice little run but my nines were no good against Kuro's A-J or A-Q.

....also from yesterday....Sox fans finally get over it (about friggin time.....thank god people finally let it go...should have been after the '04 series win but that's the way it is here)....22 years and 2 World Championships later!!!!!!!!

Monday, April 07, 2008

I took a beating in the MTT's that I decided to frequent this past weekend. Despite being well ahead in the majority of hands that I was knocked out. I did qualify for the 750K on Full Tilt...all for the price of one silly token. Some bloggers are talking about soft token tourneys and they are not lying! I try once of Full Tilt and qualify...I tried 10 shootouts on PokerStars and miss by a hair. I should have just bought into the Sunday Million..but the bankroll angel on my shoulder says.."think about all the times you complained about using your bankroll unwisely"....well said bankroll dude! I haven't looked at the HH's yet for the bigger buyin tourneys that I played but I'll probably learn something when I do.

To make up for all the near misses I had two things happen today on my way into work and at work.1. I was coasting on a road near work and saw a yellow light. There is a 4-way intersection and the yellow light turned red right as I started to coast through it. I turned to the right and saw a cop staring right at me and in slow motion I just sort of shrugged my shoulders and started to slow down. I figured he would flip the lights on and just pull my donkey-ass right over. Nada...he just coasted through the light and went on his way....I WIN!

2. An old college buddy called me up and offered me a ticket to opening day in Fenway Park with the world series celebration and all the fanfare....I WIN!

Bodog is proud to host the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series. Join up and challenge other poker bloggers each Tuesday in our Bodog Poker Room and live to tell about it. Earn points on the tournament leader board for a spot in the final tournament for a chance to win a $12,000 World Series of Poker* prize package and be a part of Team Bodog 2008.

How to ParticipateThis tournament is open to poker bloggers worldwide with a Bodog Member Player Account. If you are new to Bodog, please sign up at http://poker.bodoglife.com/

To register, players are required to go to http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/ and sign in with their Bodog account information in the upper right hand corner. Once this is completed, they must then click on "REGISTER NOW" to register themselves into the tournament series. Bloggers will each have to do this once in order to play in the series. Once this is done, they then need to find the "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" in the software and register as they normally would each and every week. For assistance with registration or with starting a Bodog member player account, call Bodog's Poker Customer Service at 1-866-909-2237 or contact us at http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com/contact prior to start time. Please include your blogger screen name, Bodog Member Account ID number and your poker blog URL address.

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I Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Suckouts from Bayne and zackklemm not without note.....the heads up battle with zack was grueling....so grueling it may be tough for me to get up tomorrow in time to get to Fenway Park for the World Series Champion RedSox to celebrate their WS rings......naaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!)

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

I'm back at Full Tilt. It looks like I'll have problems if I was to say make a big score though. I did the same thing that some others have done and cancelled the FTP account. I then joined again (2 months later) as a different account. If all goes as it did last weekend (avoiding bad beat stories and staying positive) I won't have to worry about making big tourney scores. I've been having more success in the tournaments on other sites recently so the BBT3 will be most of the tourneys on FTP. I am a low limit donk for all kinds of MTT's so I will definitely be playing token tourneys and low buyins as usual other than the blogger tourneys. I'm going to try going to Foxwoods a couple of times before my next bundle of joy is born in late May. It hurt not going to the World Poker Finals and taking a shot but I just couldn't take the time or waste the cash. In good 'olRedSox fashion "There's always next year!" BTW....how ironic that the Patriots go 19-0 and set all the records only to burn out at the end...and just before the RedSox limp into the playoffs and make another historic comeback only to storm to another World Series trophy. I said it last fall and I'll say it again...I will not question Terry Francona any more. He is and will always be the perfect man for the job.

These Bodonkey tables are loaded!!!I got short stacked real early and survived past the first break. I actually made quite the comeback from 485 chips!I get aces with 19 players left and being the short stack I also get the benefit of people limping in so I can jam and possibly triple or quadruple up.............but...........ICrushBloggers flipped up K's when he called and everybody else folded.......a King hit on the flop. I still can't get anything done in the Bodonkey......

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